Government overreaches by growing business

All governments are ultimately funded by one source - we the people. When governments try to force growth, the source of funding must be tapped.

Victoria's government (mostly businesspeople) decided to become business friendly in an extreme way. It gave away prime government-owned property to some businesses and gave big tax breaks to new and, later, all businesses. Then, it proceeded to build millions of dollars in infrastructure to accommodate businesses.

I will use Startec to show why this is bad for taxpayers.

I am a native Texan who moved for a time to Colorado. The city of Grand Junction gave Startec infrastructure five years of tax breaks to move there. Startec stayed there - you guessed it - exactly five years. It then moved to the next patsy - Victoria. Now, it is ripping off taxpayers elsewhere.

I don't know how much these ventures cost taxpayers, but you can bet it's in the millions. Oh, and all that money dropped the unemployment rate from 5.7 percent to 5 percent. But here's the kicker - the 5.7 percent that were unemployed are still unemployed. Jobs all went to people from elsewhere, many transients. So when they are gone, like Startec and frackers, the taxpayers who lived here initially will be left to pick up the pieces.

Any business worth its salt will pay its own way and benefit the place it moves to, not rape it.

One more thing. Government keeps pushing growth. We already do not have enough water. Every person who moves here will need 15,000 to 20,000 gallons of water a year. Only God knows how much any given business will use. The nuclear plant that wanted to move here wanted first rights to the Guadalupe River. In legal terms, that means if there is not enough water, it gets it all.

I am going to make a declaration not to elect anyone who pushes growth without first finding a source of water to support that growth and also to make businesses pay their own way. If you are smart, you will do the same.

John Hanning, a disgruntled taxpayer who did not vote for Don Pozzi for the above reasons, Telferner